Duties of the Editor-in-Chief

Unbiased evaluation
Submitted manuscripts are evaluated for their intellectual content without regard to any other considerations.

Confidentiality
The Editor-in-Chief and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an Editor's own   research   without   the   explicit   written   consent   of   the author(s).

Decisions regarding publications
The Editor-in-Chief of the journal is responsible for deciding which of the submitted articles should   be   published.   The   Editor-in-Chief   is   guided   by   the   policies of the journal's Editorial Board and constrained by legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The Editor-in-Chief may confer with other editors or reviewers in making decisions related to these topics.

Duties of peer reviewers

Contribution to editorial decisions
The peer reviewers assist the Editor-in-Chief in making editorial decisions and, through the editorial communication with the author, may also assist authors in improving their respective manuscripts.

Confidentiality
Any manuscripts received for review are to be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others unless authorized by the Editor-in- Chief.

Standards of objectivity
Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable. Referees  should  express  their  views  clearly  with  appropriate  supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of sources
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any observation, derivation, or argument previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer   should also call to the Editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published data of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and conflict of interest
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider evaluating manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the submission.

Duties of authors

Originality and Plagiarism
The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works. If authors have used the work or words of others, this must be appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication
An author should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal. Parallel submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of sources
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should also cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of a manuscript
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co- authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be named in an Acknowledgement section.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.